Bay of Plenty Tremors

A swarm of light earthquakes struck coastal Bay of Plenty overnight.

Sunday 16th May 2010

A burst of very shallow earthquake activity struck off-shore near Whakatane in the Bay of Plenty overnight.

Activity began at 9:09 p.m. with a magnitude 2.5 quake located 10 km north of Whakatane at a depth of 5 km. Thirty minutes later, at 9:39 p.m., a magnitude 3.5 earthquake struck the same location at a depth of 5 km.

A magnitude 3.1 quake then struck 20 km north of the town at 10:01 p.m. Thirty five minutes later a magnitude 3.1 quake struck in the original location, followed by a magnitude 2.9 quake, also 10 km north of Whakatane, at 10:52 p.m. This event was the shallowest of the swarm, being 1 km deep.

Activity then eased until 2:07 this morning, when a magnitude 3.3 quake struck 20 km north of Whakatane at a depth of 5 km.

An earthquake felt in the area at 10:50 this morning was not a member of the Whakatane swarm. This magnitude 4.5 quake was located 30 km north-east of Matawai (40 km east of Opotiki) at a depth of 5 km. Shaking from this event was felt from Whakatane to Gisborne, and at Kawerau and Te Kaha.

[Compiled from data provided by the GeoNet project and its sponsors EQC, GNS Science and FRST.]

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